Ethereum (ETH): D-Score 66/100 — Decentralized BlockIndex D-Score: 66/100 (Decentralized). Ethereum (ETH) is a Layer 1 cryptocurrency using PoS consensus. Ethereum: Leading programmable Layer‑1 blockchain powering smart contracts, PoS consensus, and expansive DeFi and NFT ecosystems. Source: https://blockindex.ai/coin/eth · Data by BlockIndex.AI · Updated 2026-06-19 D-Score breakdown (0-100, higher means more decentralized) Component: Score: Overall D-Score: 66: Node distribution: 26: Initial distribution: 0: Governance: 21: Age and history: 14: Autonomy: 5: Key facts - Layer: Layer 1 - Consensus: PoS (Other) - Launch: ICO (2015) - Founder: Vitalik Buterin, Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Joseph Lubin, Mihai Alisie, Anthony Di Iorio, Jeffrey Wilcke, Amir Chetrit - VC funded: No - Max supply: N/A - Circulating: 120,683,971 Market data (as of 2026-06-19) - Price: $1,695.46 - Market cap: $204.61B - 24h volume: $12.69B - 24h change: -1.91% · 7d change: +1.97% About Ethereum is the leading programmable Layer‑1 blockchain designed to be a general-purpose settlement and execution layer for decentralized applications, tokens and smart contracts. Originating from Vitalik Buterin's 2013 whitepaper and formally launched via a 2014 public crowd sale, Ethereum's mainnet genesis (Frontier) on July 30, 2015 established a rich developer platform built around the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Over the past decade Ethereum has evolved through iterative upgrades and an expanding ecosystem of client implementations, developer tooling and economic layers — becoming the dominant substrate for DeFi, NFTs, tokenization and composability-enabled applications. The project is coordinated through the Ethereum Foundation, multiple client teams and a broad community of researchers and implementers rather than a single corporate owner, and it combines an open-source ethos with significant institutional and developer adoption. Technically, Ethereum implements an account-based EVM execution model that enables arbitrary smart contract logic and composability between contracts. Major architectural milestones — including the Beacon Chain and the Merge that transitioned the protocol from Proof‑of‑Work to Proof‑of‑Stake — dramatically altered the network's economic and energy profile. Subsequent EIPs and upgrades such as EIP‑1559 (fee burning), Shapella/Shanghai (validator withdrawals), Dencun (EIP‑4844 proto‑danksharding) and Fusaka (PeerDAS/EIP‑7917) emphasize data‑availability, rollup throughput and gas-market improvements to reduce Layer‑2 costs. Multiple client implementations (Geth in Go, Erigon/other clients in Rust and other languages) and an active EIP process underpin a robust release and testing cadence, with testnets and shadow forks used before mainnet activation. In terms of use cases and economic design, Ether (ETH) serves as the native settlement asset for the protocol and the primary gas token for transaction execution. There is no fixed max supply; monetary issuance was materially reduced after The Merge and EIP‑1559's base fee burn can make ETH deflationary in periods of high activity. The network supports a vast DeFi economy with high Total Value Locked, widespread tokenization, and extensive Layer‑2 ecosystems that offload transaction volume. Institutional adoption accelerated following the approval of spot ETH ETFs in 2024, and on‑chain metrics continue to show deep liquidity and developer activity. At the same time, the protocol faces persistent challenges around node storage growth, state bloat and the balance between decentralization, security and scalability that drive roadmap priorities such as Verkle trees and Purge research. Governance on Ethereum remains predominantly off‑chain through EIPs, client teams and community coordination rather than an on‑chain DAO voting mechanism. The Ethereum Foundation acts as a steward for research and grants but does not centrally control protocol changes, which are implemented via EIP consensus and client adoption. The community maintains a high level of development velocity as shown by frequent upgrades and staged rollouts while continuing to prioritize security: historical incidents (notably The DAO exploit) shaped long-term governance and risk management practices. Looking forward, Ethereum's roadmap focuses on improving L2 economics and data availability, reducing costs for node operators and enabling broader adoption while maintaining the core security assumptions of the network. Links - Website: https://ethereum.org/ - Whitepaper: N/A - GitHub: https://github.com/ethereum --- About the D-Score: BlockIndex.AI rates decentralization from 0 to 100 across node distribution, initial distribution, governance, age and history, and autonomy. Methodology: https://blockindex.ai/dscore